1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of fabricating a flat plate display capable of separating a substrate and an imprinting mold with a relatively small force.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Various kinds of flat plate displays capable of reducing a weight and volume which are disadvantages of a cathode ray tube (CRT) haven been emerging recently. Such a flat plate display includes a liquid crystal display (LCD), a field emission display, a plasma display panel and an electro-luminescence (EL) display.
This flat plate display is configured of a plurality of thin films formed by a mask process including depositing (coating), exposing, developing and etching. However, the mask process has complicated fabricating assembly process and it has a disadvantage of high production cost. As a result, research and study haven been under progress to form thin films via a patterning process using an imprinting mold in recent.
According to this patterning process, when a liquid polymeric precursor contacts with a mould for imprinting which has a groove and a projection after liquid resin is painted on a substrate, the groove and the projection of the imprinting mold are reverse-transferred to the liquid polymeric precursor and the reverse-transferred liquid polymeric precursor is hardened in a hardening process to form a desired thin film pattern on the substrate.
Here, after a related art thin film is formed, the imprinting mold and the substrate are separated from each other. At this time, if the size of the substrate is identical to that of the mould for imprinting, a lower stage in which the substrate is absorbed is spaced apart from an upper stage in which the imprinting mold is absorbed such that the front surface of the mould for imprinting is separated from the substrate simultaneously. As the area of the substrate is larger in case the front surface of the molds for imprinting is separated from the substrate simultaneously, a relatively larger mechanical force is required disadvantageously. In addition, the relatively large mechanical force might damage both of the substrate and the mould for imprinting.
Moreover, in case the imprinting mold is larger than the substrate, the imprinting mold may be separated from the substrate sequentially. In this case, a relatively small mechanical force is required to separate the imprinting mold from the substrate, compared with the simultaneous separation. However, since the size of the imprinting mold is getting larger as the substrate has a larger area, it is difficult to supply molds for imprinting applicable to large area the imprinting mold. Also, as the substrate has a larger area, the distance required to separate the imprinting mold from the substrate may be increased and the imprinting mold is likely to damage accordingly.